On a particular day this past week I faced the dilemma of choosing between two of my favourite activities, writing and weeding. It was a glorious sun-filled day and the flower beds were calling my name. On the other hand, I’d finally struck the inspirational mother-lode for a feature article I’d been asked to write. Ideas don’t always come easily and when they do, my habit is to get them and the “back story” down on paper immediately. I seesawed. Weed or write? Write or weed? In a rare moment of conflict I actually wished it would start raining (a radical request for a West Coast dweller).
In the end, the call to gardening won out but as I carefully separated weeds from wisteria, pulled dandelions roots from between rhododendron tentacles and watched for slugs in the soil, I realized that there really is a parallel between the two activities. Writing requires inspiration; weeding is all about being heartless. Or, in other words, clean weeding demands getting rid of things that damage what you hope to harvest while writing is the cultivation of ideas, inspiration and information you want to nurture.
I meditated and manipulated a large flower patch for a couple of hours, so grateful that I’d taken advantage of the sunshine and warm temperatures. Once the rake and hoe had been put away and the waste deposited on a pile destined for the local dump, I quickly put my musings on paper: Like these two outwardly dissimilar activities, living the Christian life must be predicated on balance, as well. James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, wrote to early Christians:
“But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” (James 2:18)
